The piercing calls coming from above, high up on the chalk cliff, reveal that there are still peregrine falcons at home. Four chicks have fledged, and over the course of a few short weeks I’ve been watching them grow from ungainly youngsters, flapping in short, clumsy flights across the cliff face, to become stronger aerobats like their parents. The mother soars overhead, her tail fanned out, and slowly banks and turns back towards the cliff, calling again, the sun catching her grey and white face. The young birds – brown with heavily streaked breasts – answer, their voices sounding more like squeaks than the piercing shrieks of the adult.
In the past week, both parents have been enticing the chicks to follow them by carrying prey in their talons, which they give to the young mid-air. When they all leave the nest site, probably some time in the next few weeks, the adults will teach them how to hunt live prey – birds in flight – over the Downs.
In the evening, I drive into Chichester, and wander the streets as the shops are closing. The few remaining shoppers are heading back to their cars. But the “skree-skree-skree” calls over our heads announce that at least one fledged peregrine is on the wing, and practising its flying skills around the cathedral. And on one of the decorated turrets at the base of the towering spire, an adult female peregrine looks down and watches.
As those who follow the chichesterperegrines.co.uk blog will already know, four chicks also fledged here, leaving the nest on 13 June, and flying within two days. But they and the parents will continue to hang around the cathedral, although for less and less time now. And then in August, like their cliff-dwelling counterparts, they will head off with the adults to be taught how to hunt over the Downs or nearby Pagham harbour. During the course of the autumn or winter, the young will disperse to fend for themselves, but I know I’ll see some of them again in the coming months.
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